Newport And Ebbw Vale Start Well

Newport and Ebbw Vale won their opening matches in the Welsh Premiership at the expense of Caerphilly and Swansea respectively.

Newport completed their second victory in a week as they overpowered Caerphilly 36-10 at Rodney Parade in front of 4,850 fans.

The home side scored a try after four minutes through flanker Jason Forster. They were awarded a penalty try in the 12th minute to give them a 12-point lead they never looked like surrendering.

Newport looked comfortable throughout, and pushed their total points up to 36 thanks to second-half tries from Shane Howarth, Gareth Gravell, and Adrian Garvey.

Fly half Jason Strange was in good kicking form, scoring 11 points - four conversions and a penalty goal.

Caerphilly scored two unconverted tries in the second half through Sam Cox and Ryan Howells.

Ebbw Vale gained immediate revenge for their 33-20 Celtic League defeat to Swansea with a 16-13 win over the Whites at Eugene Cross Park.

Mark Meenan opened the scoring with a third-minute penalty goal. And when Meenan converted Mark Wakley's try the Steelmen had a deserved 10-0 lead.

Swansea replied with an Arwel Thomas penalty goal, and a try from Rory Jenkins that Thomas converted.

In a tight second period two penalty goals from Vale's Meenan and one from Swansea's Thomas gave Ebbw a three-point lead they defended to the final whistle to send the 1,500 strong crowd into raptures.

WRU International Skills Coach Jason Strange is a busy man, combining the new role with that of Wales Under 20 attack coach, Ebbw Vale head coach and continuing to teach at Ebbw Fawr Learning Community.

Warren Gatland and Sam Warburton look ahead to this week's crunch RBS 6 Nations tie against France, where the Wales skipper in particular is keen to make his mark, as Paris has proved a bleak place for him in the past.

Following their historic win over England, Wales Under 20 suffered a narrow, 36-34 loss to their Scottish counterparts last weekend, despite outscoring them by five tries to three. Watch the match highlights and reaction.

WRU TV go behind the scenes with the Wales squad as they put the final touches in place ahead of the clash against Scotland at Murrayfield. Follow the squad on their captain's run, the kickers visit to Murrayfield and Neil Jenkins' press conference